My friend Antti Jokinen came to dinner tonight (fillet of beef with mushroom risotto). Some very fine wines were served. We started with a delightful cheap Mosel (8,5% abv and 14 euros) and continued with the loveliest, most classic Claret (12% abv - take note, all ye modernists: perfectly ripe and only 12%!!!!) and finished with a dessert which kept our interests for the first glass (10% abv). It was so nice to taste wines which were so savoury, so fresh, so mineral, so true to type, so food friendly and so low in alcohol.

[*]1999 Dr. H Thanisch Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer, Middle Mosel (3/25/2006)Light yellow. A light, classic Riesling with the typical M-S-R savoury, mineral grapefruitiness and the pungent olive stone character that I find is a precursor to budding petrolliness. The palate is faintly sweet, light, pleasantly acidic without being tart, long and very very fresh indeed. Quite a lovely little wine.

1988 Château Palmer - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux (3/25/2006)Still dark, very little bricking. The nose is as classic Bordeaux as possible, though more Pauillacian than Margaux IMO. At first the Merlot character of dark fruit, even plums, is to the fore, but with a little time the nose is of pure cassis and wet rock, cedar and lead. The palate is perfectly balanced: the fruit is ripe and sweet but not over-ripe, leafy and pleasantly green but not under-ripe, still a bit tannic and with the loveliest acidity on the immensely long aftertaste. The wine is so very fresh. Absolutely lovely. Will keep, showing just a little mature character. (The more I taste 1988s, the more I realise that this vintage is just to my taste in Bordeaux: savoury, fresh, acidic, fruity yet lacking the pruney/raisiny notes of so many 89s and 90s, tannic but with sufficent fruit to withstand it.)

2001 Winzergenossenschaft Königschaffhausen Königschaffhauser Vulkanfelsen Scheurebe Auslese - Germany, Baden (3/25/2006)Orange. A nose of ripe passion fruit, a touch of botrytis, some wet rock - seemingly very interesting and pleasant, but the second glass just became a bit dull. The palate is very sweet and though there is fine acidity and freshness, the RS is just too dominant and it is therefore somewhat lacking in raciness. A very fine wine anyhow, but perhaps more a tasting wine than a dinner wine, despite being unspoofulated.

David M. Bueker wrote:Thanks for the notes Otto. To my taste, some of the smaller 1999s are really coming around. The bigger spatlesen need substantially more time though.

And I agree with you on 1988. I love that vintage, and also 2001 and 2002 which to my taste are not dissimilar.

Yes, coming around nicely, but I still think that this bottle at least will improve still - but that's because I like petrol.

The 2001 is my favourite recent vintage also. I do like the 2002s also, but prefer the 01. Do I detect another person who isn't enamoured by the 2000s? And yes, I do see many similarities in 1988 to 2001, except that the 88s seem a little more overtly tannic, no?

Otto

I don't drink wine because of religious reasons ... only for other reasons.

Nice notes Otto! I haven't had many Bordeaux 1988s so it is nice to read a note about them. The vintage is described as a "classic" one, and indeed seems to be, from your note.
If you are at the computer, why not come in to the chat already, it is a bit lonely in there, waiting for the rest of the gang...
Cheers, Anders